Be ready to scream on Facebook, before signing up for Moscow’s car-sharing services

Like cities throughout the West with Zipcar service, Moscow is a city with great potential for the car-sharing business: its traffic is some of the worst in the world, and parking in the city’s center — within the “Garden Ring” — is prohibitively expensive. Under these circumstances, many people did not think much before signing contracts with Moscow’s major car-sharing companies, DeliMobil and Anytime (both in business since last year). DeliMobil had something extra going for it, too: an endorsement from the Moscow city government.

Within a few months, some of DeliMobil’s drivers were involved in traffic collisions and suffered damage to their vehicles. While accidents were inevitable, the drivers were surprised to learn that they were charged a far higher share of the repair costs than they expected.